In a film-based one-time use camera (OTUC) the lens projects the image on a light sensitive film or directly on paper, such as Polaroid's OTUC, and the image remains analog. A film-based OTUC cannot manipulate the captured image. In order to receive a print from a film-based OTUC some physical unit/material has to come out of the camera (light sensitive film or paper) and in many cases break the camera shell in the process. The film-based OTUC relies on a mechanical apparatus (manually powered by the user's hand) to prepare the camera for the next shot (picture taking). The film-based OTUC are typically easy to use, low cost, and recyclable. However, The film-based OTUC differ from digital photography in several ways such as lack high quality images, all-digital processing rather than chemical processing, and the digital format of the information which allows immediate previewing of photos, sharing photos through e-mail, etc.
The design of the multi-use digital cameras allows the consumer to take as many pictures as desired. The camera may be limited in capacity but the consumer can either extend the capacity (add more memory if the camera supports removable memory or external storage device like a floppy drive or mini-CD) or upload the pictures from the camera to a PC or any other type of external storage device (e.g. portable zip drive) and erase them from the camera. Multi-use digital cameras are designed to provide the consumer with digital photography experience. They allow the consumers to preview the taken pictures, browse through stored pictures, add information on the picture (i.e. date etc.), set resolution and image quality for better use of capacity and other digital capabilities that define the digital photography experience. The multi-use digital camera posses a large amount of internal processing power. In a multi-use digital camera the Central Processing Unit (ASIC and/or micro controller) should be able to provide the consumer with the set of features as part of the digital photography experience. The communication port in a multi-use camera (serial, parallel, USB or any other type of communication) is designed for maximum compatibility with other devices or computers. The easier it is to connect to another device the better it is.